Senior Erdogan aide slams Bolton memoir for depictions of Turkish president
Ankara has criticized the former US national security adviser’s descriptions of President Donald Trump’s discussions with his Turkish counterpart, accusing him of publishing the book for his own personal gain.
ISTANBUL — Turkey slammed a tell-all memoir by former US national security adviser John Bolton that included revelations about discussions between the two countries’ leaders, saying it contained “manipulative” depictions of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who has always been “straightforward” about his dealings with the US administration.
On Tuesday Bolton, who served as President Donald Trump’s chief adviser on national security affairs until September 2019, published “The Room Where It Happened,” a blunt account of the US president’s conduct with foreign leaders during Bolton’s 17 months in the job. Trump has accused his former aide of both lying and revealing classified information.
In the book, Bolton asserted that Erdogan had won a pledge from Trump to intervene on his behalf in US legal proceedings against Halkbank, a Turkish state bank that has since been indicted in New York for allegedly helping Tehran dodge sanctions for its nuclear program by moving about $20 billion in Iranian energy revenues.
He also wrote about Trump’s defiance of Congress by refusing to impose sanctions on Turkey for its purchase of an advanced Russian antiaircraft system and how Erdogan convinced him to pull US forces out of northeastern Syria in December 2018, two matters widely covered by the media.
